There’s no way I want Margaret Thatcher Day

The hecklers left the moment-in-the-sun right winger with just nine seconds to try to get his point across.

If he had been allowed nine minutes, nine days, nine years or nine millennia, it would not have been long enough to convince me his idea had one iota of value.

This country has had some truly great leaders.

And depending on your political point of view, Mrs Thatcher might be numbered among them.

But to have a Margaret Thatcher Day would be ridiculous.

Try, for instance, selling it to the people of South Yorkshire where communities were ripped apart by her battle with the coal mining trade unions.

I would imagine most of them would work for nothing rather than have a day off in the name of Mrs T.

Try, on the other hand, convincing the people of Scotland who were treated as guinea pigs for the ruinous poll tax.

It would probably be enough to ensure the independence referendum went the way of Saltire-waving Alex Salmond and his SNP.

I have actively kept an eye on politics since first voting in May 1979.

That’s right, my first vote was the day Mrs T was swept to power.

I have also studied the political history of our country.

And I have never come across anyone who has so permanently divided opinion among both the politically active and the man (or woman) in the street.

I expect a few people out there to be outraged by these sentiments and I can even write a list of those likely to pen replies.

But Margaret Thatcher Day is something I could simply never celebrate.

Not even if we already had a Winston Churchill Day, an Oliver Cromwell Day or even, somehow, an equivalent of America’s President’s Day.